Events

Panel: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York: A Civic Activist Boot Camp: Working Within and Without the System

Jane Jacobs was not beholden to any strategy for making change happen. And today, the complexity of the city and its needs are such that activists also employ a diversity of approaches. While some embrace the protest and resistance models that Jacobs used to oppose the Lower Manhattan Expressway, others focus on effecting social, cultural and political change while working within existing structures.

By Aaron Donovan

7:32 PM EDT on September 13, 2007

In the spirit of Jane Jacobs, this panel not only will explore ways to open up urban planning processes, it will detail concrete ways that individuals can acquire the tools necessary to make their voices heard. Participants will outline ways to make stands, including basic organization, media relations, community relations, government relations, and the use of legal action.

Richard Kahan, Urban Assembly — moderator
Alexie Torres-Fleming, Southern Bronx Watershed River Alliance / Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice
Reverend Billy, Church of Stop Shopping
Joshua David, Friends of the High Line
Marshall Brown, Atlantic Yards Development Workshop

Aaron Donovan

Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

Events